Clay Oven Test: Orange Sweet Rolls

A long time ago, it was time to test out my newest clay oven.  With experience, I've learned that you need to use it once to finish drying the clay and baking it into brick before it will get to the normal high temperature needed to bake for 6 hours.  So, I prepared it by myself on this trial day.  After heating the oven for 3 hours, it was actually pretty hot.  It got up to over 400F, which is not as hot as it can get, but still pretty good for the first time.

Since I wasn't expecting to be able to bake for 6 hours, I didn't plan to make too many things.  I made pita bread, of course.

Then, I made orange sweet rolls (seemed like a good use for some of the many many oranges growing on our orange trees).  I used this recipe.  I also roasted garlic and a couple eggplants at the same time, which I later made into baba ganoush and hummus.

I was actually a bit surprised by the temperature of the oven so the rolls got more done than I would have necessarily liked.  But once I put icing on top, they softened and didn't taste burnt at all.  The funny thing about making food with oranges in Uganda is that here, oranges have green peel and are only lightly orange inside.  So orange zest is actually green.